Writing Tip: Giving your Fiction the Light Touch

Making heavy-handed fiction more readable.

Do not talk the reader’s ears off.
Make sure each adjective says something different about the noun it modifies.
If two modifiers are near in meaning, pick the best and drop the other.
If every/most of the nouns and verbs in a paragraph are modified, it is over written.
Here is a test to see if your manuscript is over written. Go through a paragraph and circle only the modifiers that are key. Then go back and restudy the others.
Do not modify "he said" and "He should.” Do not write, “He finally said...” or “He really should...”
Realize that adverbs can only hone and enhance meaning, they can't create feeling or meaning.
Do not think you must lead the reader around every detail. Let the reader discover the meaning along with you.
However, do not over do the subtlety and leave out too much explanation. It can be choppy.
Don't dazzle the reader all of the time.
In search of the effective metaphor, the best answer is sometimes to give up and just say it.
Simplicity is more articulate than over-drawn prose.
Never snarl at the reader by pounding home a meaning or description with exaggeration. Any time you see the word "so" it should alert you that you are over emphasizing something. In the sentence – "He was so ugly," the word so is too much. You may talk like that but do not write like that.
Never over-describe something. Tell how someone reacts, not how he feels.